Bangalore: The State government on Friday said it has prepared a draft bill to amend the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, which has no purview over the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) and schools affiliated to international education boards.
The proposed amendment will bring these schools under the State government’s control in terms of supervising the administration. In the Legislative Council, Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education, Kimmane Ratnakar, while replying to a question by JD(S) MLC, M Srinivas, on unrecognised private schools in the State, said the government was also planning to amend the Education Act to bring CBSE and ICSE schools under our purview.
Later interacting with Deccan Herald, Ratnakar said, “The government will dedicate an entire chapter in the proposed amended legislation to bring all types of schools operating within the boundaries of Karnataka under the State Education department’s purview.
The attempt is to ensure that all schools comply with the rules of the State.” It is estimated that at least 16 per cent of the 75,000 schools in the State are affiliated to CBSE, ICSE or other international education boards. Most of them are located in Bengaluru.
The amendment seeks to empower the Department of Public Instruction to investigate whether private unaided schools were complying with the State laws.
The legislation will give the Education department the authority to look into employee details; whether these details have been submitted to the local police station; the student-teacher ratio, the licences and permissions they have obtained to run the school, etc.
According to the department, private unaided schools were not allowing the department officials to enter their premises, stating they were not accountable to the State Education department. The Education department has referred the proposed amendments to the Law department.
“The Law department has raised certain objections to the proposed amendments, including that of transfer of teachers and officials,” he said. Besides, the government also plans to transfer all Block Education Officers and Deputy Directors of Public Instruction once every three years.
Further, these officials will not be given a city corporation posting if it happens to be his/her home district. This apart, the department has proposed an increase of quota for inter-divisional transfers from five per cent to eight per cent.
